Yet around 18 months ago, when Celerity Communications, part of the Howard Hunt Group, was looking for a cross-media marketing system for a client, the solution came from another direction. In fact it came from a nation better known for its fine wine, penchant for pavement cafes and endearing, enduring sense of fashion: France.   

"We had a French employee working here and he introduced the Neolane product to the company," explains Dirk Wybe de Jong, Celerity’s CRM and integration consultant. "It was used with one client and proved so successful that other clients became interested. It is now a really popular tool for our client base."

Celerity is a marketing services provider that aims to cover every step of the marketing supply chain, from data collection and analytics to production, across all the possible output channels. Over the past three years, it has witnessed a shift in the way clients wish to take a product to market. There is now more integration between offline and online, with clients wishing to use a real mix of channels. And Wybe de Jong says that, as well as print-based marketers moving to digital, those previously using digital-only are discovering the benefits of print.

Two years ago, this shift was at the early stages and companies were finding that co-ordinating all the output channels and the corresponding creative was proving very staff intensive – what was needed was a way of automating the process. Celerity scanned the market for a solution.

It ended up with a shortlist of Unica, SAS Automation and Chordiant software, but none quite fit the bill for the specifications the client needed. That’s when the French employee popped up and suggested a software system he knew of back in France that was proving exceptionally popular. After looking into it, Celerity was converted.

"All the tools we reviewed displayed great ability in helping clients with the automation of their multi-channel campaign requirements," says Wybe de Jong. "But for Celerity, we found Neolane, taking cost alongside capability into consideration, represented the best fit for our clients going forward."

Global player
Neolane was founded in France in 2001 and first expanded into the UK in 2005. Since then it has found a home in the marketing departments of major global brands, such as Motorola, Canon and Sony Music. The software links multiple data channels to multiple output channels, both online and offline, including social media, print, SMS, email, MMS, telephone and fax, all through a single platform. This means marketers can run highly personalised cross-channel campaigns from a single point. The added bonus, and the real key for Celerity, was that it could also automate the marketing messages to a very high level.

"The strongest part of Neolane is that it enables you to automate all your marketing activities," reveals Wybe de Jong. "You can set up different workflows and triggers and set it to send follow-up emails or text message campaigns. What you often find, therefore, is that within a company there will only be one person operating the software as it automates so much; at most you will have a few people. It’s a very powerful marketing tool as a result."

Celerity uses the software as a central hub for its cross-media communications, accessing and automating all the channels. Installation was pretty painless, says Wybe de Jong, and any issues the firm had and couldn’t fix itself were quickly dealt with.

"Most of the problems we had we could sort ourselves, but some things, like bugs in the software, Neolane helped us solve. For example, when the interface wouldn’t let us configure something, Neolane developed an interim measure, then after a week sent a permanent fix," he explains. "They have a very good R&D department and they are very willing to help."

As for using the software, he says that you need both technical ability as well as experience of running cross-media campaigns to get the most out of it, but to get up to speed with the functionality would take around one to two weeks. When it comes to service and support, the UK arm of Neolane has an office in Twickenham and there are four levels of service: Standard, support hours are local to the specific Neolane support centre hours; Global, Neolane supported from multiple support centre locations; Silver, increased support hours; and Gold, 24-hour support.

Celerity doesn’t just have the software installed for its own use, it has been so impressed with the solution that it also rolls out the system to clients who wish to control their own marketing in-house.

"What is a common across all projects is a period of consultation to understand what is achievable with the software with that particular client," explains Wybe de Jong. "This period can lead to no further involvement with Celerity; some further consultation; a client-side implementation where we install the system and provide the consultancy, installation, training and back up services but where they run the marketing themselves in house using the software; a fully managed solution by Celerity where we use our own Neolane software to manage all marketing comms; or a hybrid of options."

Central offering
Since its use for that first client 18 months ago, the Neolane software has become central to the company’s marketing service offering as client demands have shifted. It is Wybe de Jong’s belief that having this weapon in the company’s arsenal has ensured Celerity has kept up to date with changing specifications in the UK marketing scene.

He says: "What Neolane has given us is the ability to have a single view of marketing channels, ensuring the accurate data we collected could be meaningfully interpreted and actionable across all the possible outputs. Has this enabled us to win new clients or has this just ensured we have been able to evolve enough to keep them?"

Going forward, Celerity hopes to expand the Neolane software into new areas. It is currently looking at getting further into the mobile channel with iPhone and Blackberry apps, while it has already linked the software with FastStats, a marketing insight tool that enables marketers to interpret customer data and track campaigns. It is also looking at further integration for the print channel.

"We are working on a direct integration with GMC software for the DM channel. This would mean we could preview the print files in Neolane," reveals Wybe de Jong.

Plans for all this future development just go to show how malleable the software is, says Wybe de Jong, and he believes that it is the perfect tool for printers to invest in if they want to get into cross-media services – as long as they have the technical ability to make the most of it.

---

SPECIFICATIONS
Operating system: Neolane is accessed via either a Rich Client (Microsoft Windows) or via a browser. Neolane is available as licensed software and as a hosted service (SAAS)
Price: Prices for Neolane start at around £100,000 depending upon factors such as the size of the marketing database and the modules selected
Contact: Neolane 0845 680 1670 www.neolane.com

---

COMPANY PROFILE
Company profile
Celerity Communications is part of the Howard Hunt Group and is based in Dartford, Kent. It is a marketing services provider working across the whole marketing process through multiple channels, from data services through creative and on to output.

Why I bought it…
The company was seeking an innovative cross–media marketing software solution for a client that enabled automation of messages across a number of channels.

How it has performed...
Dirk Wybe de Jong, Celerity’s CRM and integration consultant, says: "What Neolane has given us is the ability to have a single view of marketing channels, ensuring the accurate data we collected could be meaningfully interpreted and actionable across all the possible outputs."

It has enabled the company to win new clients and ensured it has been able to evolve so it could keep existing clients.